


Wolf in Leaf's Clothing

by keepyourpantsongohan



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Friendship, Gen, Ghosts, Humour, I Only Post Holiday Fics in A Different Holiday Season, Implied Feelings, Merry Halloween Y'all, Moon Curses, Sloaners Gift-o-ween 2019, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21744277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepyourpantsongohan/pseuds/keepyourpantsongohan
Summary: ‘Tatters’ is a fitting term; there are tears along the arms, legs, and back, and it certainly does seem as if the fabric has been pulled around.“This looks like it was torn apart by a wild beast,” Gaara says, reaching a hand out to examine the cloth.“Gaara-kun, to have my name acknowledged as Konoha’s Green Beast by the Kazekage himself is an honour indeed!”
Relationships: Gaara & Rock Lee, Gaara & Uchiha Sasuke, Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara/Rock Lee (implied)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	Wolf in Leaf's Clothing

Gaara still hasn’t decided how he feels about the new moon. 

It is, for all intents and purposes, not much different than the old moon. But it is one thing to see the moon as a large rock which controls the tides, and another as something made by one of your friends for the purposes of containing godly forces. 

It’s all a bit much to wrap his head around, even for someone like Gaara.

It would be easier, he thinks, if the people in Konoha would stop acting as if the changes in the moon weren’t doing anything to them.

“Kakashi-san,” Gaara says gently, because he has gotten better at delivering news than he used to be, “I am concerned about your spirit.”

Kakashi blinks at him, and then his eyes crease in the suggestion of a smile. “My mood is fine, Gaara, but your worry is touching.”

Gaara pauses. “I am glad to hear you’re adjusting well. However, the spirit I am concerned about is over there.” 

He points to Obito, who is standing by Kakashi, alarmingly corporeal for someone who is only visible in the light of the moon. Obito waves. “Hi.”

“Oh, him!” Kakashi says, as if just noticing his new company. He waves a hand dismissively. It passes through Obito, which doesn’t really tell Gaara much about how solid the man is, given his history. “Obito’s fine. He’s not doing anything.”

“He’s here,” Gaara feels the need to point out. 

“So are we,” Kakashi says, in a tone which suggests he’s saying something wise. 

Gaara sighs. “Never mind.”

* * *

“Sasuke,” Gaara finds himself inquiring next, “there is something I have been meaning to ask you.”

True to form, Sasuke shrugs. “And?”

“This box of dirt,” he says, gesturing to Sasuke’s current seat. ‘Coffin’ would perhaps be more accurate than ‘box’, but all of Gaara’s shinobi training has told him that knowledge requires open-mindedness. “What is it for? 

Sasuke raises his one visible eyebrow, crossing his arms. “You carry around a gourd of sand. How is that any different?” he asks curtly. 

“My gourd is for my jutsu,” Gaara reminds him. “Are you... developing a new technique?” 

Sasuke looks at him for a long moment, and then admits, “I’m trying to cross the river.”

Gaara’s lips turn up at the corners. Pride is an easy enough sticking point to understand. Perhaps the box is not a coffin after all. The purpose of the soil is unclear, but then, there are few bodies of water in Suna. “A boat then. You haven’t learned how to swim. But I find it difficult to believe that a shinobi of your calibre would have any difficulty walking on water with chakra.”

Sasuke scoffs. “I know how to swim and walk on water. It’s just not that simple.” 

Gaara can’t gauge his meaning, so he places a foot on the water himself, channelling his chakra to the soles of his feet. It stands without trouble. Tentatively, he places his second foot, and finds himself looking at Sasuke askance. 

Sasuke makes an expression which is startlingly familiar. Gaara has spent enough time with Naruto and Sakura to know the face of someone who is preparing to embarrass themselves. With a huff of resignation, Sasuke moves his feet quickly onto the water. 

Sasuke is unceremoniously flung from the river back onto the shoreline without a single pause in the water’s flow. He lands on his tailbone with a scowl. 

“That is... peculiar,” Gaara agrees, eyeing the water beneath his feet warily. “How long has the river been behaving this way?”

“Since I arrived back in Konoha after the war.” 

Gaara frowns. He steps off the water, and then crouches down by the river to inspect. He sees nothing but clear, untainted water flowing around the Naka shrine at the river’s head. An image of his own face frowns back at him. 

The frown gets deeper when he realizes Sasuke has swiftly moved to mirror his position, but marks no presence leaning above the water, in reflection or shadow. 

“These changes happen only at night?” Gaara guesses, with a watchful eye cast at the sky.

In his periphery, Gaara sees Sasuke shrug again. “I wouldn’t know. I travel mostly by night. When it’s daylight, I sleep.”

“Peculiar,” Gaara says again, and he and Sasuke sigh in unison.

* * *

Most suspicious of all to Gaara, is the matter of Rock Lee’s eyebrows. 

It may be because in his visits to Konoha, Gaara often finds himself spending more time with Lee than almost any other village resident, but he has certainly come to know the other boy’s face quite well. 

So during their next meal at Yakiniku Q, when Lee’s eyebrows suddenly expand to thrice their size, and join at the middle, Gaara feels compelled to ask, “Is everything alright with you, Lee?”

“Never better, Gaara-kun!” Lee declares. “Lately, I have found myself filled with a youthful energy unlike anything I have ever experienced!”

Gaara smiles. It seems some things are yet unchanged. “That is good to hear. Is this the result of a new training regimen?” 

With a beaming grin, Lee pulls the sunagimo off the brazier before it has cooked through. “It is a lifestyle change! I have altered both my eating habits and my schedule to maximize my strength. This meat has hardly lost any fat or nutrients!” 

It is not the strangest thing Gaara has heard a shinobi do to gather his strength, so he nods. “That would certainly have some benefits,” he agrees, leaving his own sunagimo on the grill. While he has appreciated a spar with Lee once in a while, his own priorities for training are different.

“But that is not all.” Lee says proudly. “I have been training even in my sleep!”

“In your sleep?” Gaara repeats. “What do you mean?”

Lee adds another round of meat to their grill, leaning forward conspiratorially. “Just that!” he says, locking eyes with Gaara. The unibrow seems to wiggle as he does. “I fall asleep, but when I wake up, I know I have been practicing my taijutsu, because my hands and feet show the wear of a shinobi who has given his all!”

Gaara can recall a time in his life when marks had seemed to appear on his body he lost consciousness, but that was when Shukaku was still with him. While no such thing could happen to Lee, his growing concern for his comrades in Konoha prompts him to ask, “Do you remember anything when you wake up?”

Lee shakes his head. “When I wake up, I am unable to recall the events of the previous night. I simply find myself in another part of the village.” There is no hint of worry in his tone. “I can be sure that I have trained hard, though because every morning my jumpsuit has been stretched, barely able to contain my muscles!”

Gaara glances down at Lee’s outfit. It doesn’t seem very stretched out, but Lee’s measure of his own success are usually quite honest. “I see,” he says, even if he does not.

“Ah, Gaara-kun, it is okay to admit when you are confused!” Lee observes, smile growing larger. “This jumpsuit is new! I could not wear one in tatters to dine with my dear friend!”

Helpfully, Lee somehow manages to pull an entire jumpsuit from the pocket of his flak jacket. ‘Tatters’ is a fitting term; there are tears along the arms, legs, and back, and it certainly does seem as if the fabric has been pulled around. 

“This looks like it was torn apart by a wild beast,” Gaara says, reaching a hand out to examine the cloth.

Lee’s cheeks colour, and Gaara gathers he has made a social error. He opens his mouth to apologize, but Lee, with tears in his eyes, replies, “Gaara-kun, to have my name acknowledged as Konoha’s Green Beast by the Kazekage himself is an honour indeed!”’

“Er, that is—”

“We must commemorate this moment with a hot-blooded embrace!”

Gaara flushes. “Lee what are you—“

In the blink of an eye, Lee has rounded the table and pulled Gaara bodily into a hug. In surprise, Gaara flinches and Lee’s teeth collide with Gaara’s forehead in what might be called world’s most embarrassing rendition of a kiss.

“My apologies!” says Lee, pulling back. “I realize now that you were not prepared for our embrace. Would you prefer a high five?” he adds, more gently.

Lee raises a hand in offering. When Gaara glances up, he sees that Lee’s palm has been covered in thick black hair, not unlike the state of his brow. 

Gaara sighs and high-fives Lee with a bemused smile. 

* * *

As Kazekage, there is a delicate nature to Gaara’s diplomatic relations. 

There are areas in which his viewpoint may not be welcome, and opinions which would not endear him a village which, not so many years ago, he had been comfortable to attack. 

If being the Kazekage has taught Gaara anything, it is that shinobi are stubborn to a fault. In Suna, trying to deliver a criticism of the village’s idiosyncrasies is like trying to grasp a single grain of sand in a windstorm. Konoha, while warmer, is not so different. 

Still, Gaara is a man of duty, and would not fail to protect his friends because of pretense. 

Late at night, he finds himself seeking out someone who has never failed to come to his aid in difficult times. 

“There is something wrong with Konoha,” he tells Naruto. 

Naruto laughs. “You sound like Sasuke.”

Gaara blanches, mind’s eye on the coffin at the Naka river. “I mean this seriously, Naruto. Each person I encounter has something different about them when the moon comes out. Even Rock Lee.”

“Going on a date with Bushy-Brows is going to be weird no matter what time of day you go,” Naruto teases, elbowing him. 

Gaara clears his throat and wills himself not to be diverted. “Kakashi-san is surrounded by ghosts,” he implores.

“Sensei’s always talking about the past,” comes the cheerful reply. 

Gaara rather thinks that Obito hardly qualifies as ‘the past’ when he was lurking in Kakashi’s office for their last summit meeting, arguing with Kakashi’s ANBU guard about how to best take care of his office plants. He wonders exactly how Team 7 gets any decisions made at all. 

Needing to impress upon Naruto the severity of the matter, Gaara claps a hand onto Naruto’s shoulder. “Uchiha Sasuke is unable to sleep at night.” 

Naruto raises an eyebrow at him, and Gaara realizes how he must sound. He had never expected a day where Uzumaki Naruto would be the person telling him to act more rational. “Maybe you should take some time off from all of these Kage summits, Gaara,” Naruto says, with an easy smile. “If Kakashi-sensei couldn’t get Sasuke to sleep at a normal time, it doesn’t have to be your job. I don’t want you to tire yourself out of being Kazekage before I become Hokage, y’know.”

Gaara takes a deep breath. “You could be right. I have been feeling out of sorts this evening. Lee knocked into me at dinner, and ever since my eyes have been aching.”

A concerned line crosses Naruto’s features. “Have you thought about asking Sakura to check them out?”

“In the morning,” Gaara replies, staring up at the moon. Sitting on the roof of an apartment building with Naruto is as much exposure to the sky as he has had in Konoha for days. Like this, the moon doesn’t look quite so threatening. If anything, it is a comfort, a round face in the sky winking at him and lighting his path. 

Naruto looks at him out of the corner of his eye. “In this light, it kind seems like they’re glowing yellow. Maybe you’re the one who’s changing at night, y’know?” he suggests, grinning widely. “Did something bite you?”

“Almost,” says Gaara ruefully, rubbing at his forehead. Something about the motion feels off, so he glances down at his hand. Just like Lee, his hand is covered in hair. 

Gaara screams, while the moon continues to twinkle in the sky. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Dedicated to nadashikiyaboi, for Sloaners' Gift-o-Ween. 
> 
> The moon is Kakashi's mom. It's not relevant to the story, I just thought you should know.)


End file.
